Objective observation
What is your opinion on the use of the computer combined with different media?
In today´s industry is hard to get away from using a computer as it sometimes can define and perfect the design like a human hand can´t do. Back in the time artist and designers spend much of the time developing pictures, while now it is so easy just to upload it to the computer and edit the pictures in different programs. A lot of the expenses related to developing pictures, or film material have gone down, while the hours in front of a computer have gone up. This applies to illustrators, photographers and designers. The programs available today have made it easier to create new designs and develop new ideas never done before. It also made it easier to combine different designs like illustration with photography.
It´s important to preserve the history of how designs were made before and be able to pass it along to the next generation. Sometimes the computer can also limit our creativity, and it’s easier to get a design sketch up on a piece of paper. The best combination is between the traditional and modern, computer and a piece of paper. When you are still in the design process the ideas can come through much better when you are only working with pen and paper, you got nothing else distracting you. In some programs you got so many options that it gets too much, keep it simple with a simple sketch and see where it brings you. We can´t deny the fact that the world is not stopping in development and so is the design industry. I think if you want to come though you need to keep up with the demand. But maybe in the end nothing beats paper. Some artwork comes though better on paper with different textures and more depth, than a design on a computer can show.
Pushing technology and changing philosophy
The relationship between image and text.
In the interview Marian mentions that writing is often expected to be the focus then it comes to her design. As it seems she isn’t influenced by that when she starts her design process, she rather uses the combination of merging together illustration and text, creating a shaped like pattern. The style gets its own focus and it becomes a separate element. You can see that much of her work features from the Swiss style, like her colour usage. She uses often a few colours, something Swiss style is known for. As her work is influenced by the style, her style of combining typography and illustration is a bit different to the know Swiss style. Marian wants to draw the attention of the audience by curiosity and creativity, where typography and illustration are intertwined compared to the Swiss style. The style is intended to communicate a message in a simple and functional way by being easy to read fonts and prefer photography as a communication.
The Swiss style is based on simplicity and functionality to communicate the message, Marian doesn’t underestimate the audience ability to use the imagination to find out what she wants to communicate though her designs. In that way it makes the design more interested and memorable. She wants to do something different from what has been done before and challenge the boundaries. The Swiss style focuses on the rules that are been set for that type of visual communication, which is important as many of the set principles have become a template for good designs in the flowing years. The style is most known for its grids that are set for that type of style. As Marian experiments with merging both typography and illustrations, these grids can still be found in her own designs, but she is not afraid make asymmetrical designs.
Example of her designs:
And the Swiss style design:
Research on Late Modernism
Research on the Swiss International Style
After you have done research on the style, give a description of your own. How would you define the style?
The International Typographic Style, also known as the Swiss Style, is a graphic design style that first emerged in Russia, the Netherlands and Germany in the 1920s and was further developed by designers in Switzerland during the 1950s. The style has influenced the graphic design as a part of the modernist movement, impacting other design-related fields such as architecture and art. One can in many ways say the style is a further development of De Stijl (1927 – 1931) and Bauhaus (1919 – 1931).
The Swiss style summed up is a strong and clean style. It focuses on readability and the use of grids and photography. Sans serif fonts became more common and in collaboration with photography, typography was used in a whole new way as a new tool to reach people through posters, and among other things. The most used font at that time was Akzidenz Grotesk, today known as Helvetica. Not only is typography used in a new way, but the style consisted of strong graphic elements like geometry, patterns, few but strong colours and abstract elements. The style uses the grid system as that how they ordered the words and layouts together. This framework has since been important in web designing used today. As the designs influenced by the Swiss style may lack some depth, the style focuses on having the design flat, no shadows, no 3D, decorative borders, no gradient and the content is in focus, as the most important aspects of the style.
Posters and layouts used in this style focuses on typography, using the sans serif, big bold letters, showing strong grid system, with some asymmetrical looks in the background with the usage of photography, strong colours and text ragged right text. The thought behind the Swiss style is that the content should stay in focus, the content of the work shouldn’t be the focus, nor the designer’s subjective style.
Influences on Swiss International Style
What do you think the main influences were on the Swiss International Style. In other words, what motivated designers to create and follow this style?
What may be the biggest impact on the Swiss styles is the time it was developed and what was going in the world at the moment. The style started around 1940s, during world war II, and was further developed in the post-war era. In addition, this style was developed in Switzerland, a country that was neutral during the war and avoided the misery like the rest of the countries that was part of the war. Just because they were neutral under the war, doesn’t mean the country wasn´t influenced by what was happening in Europe at that time.
The swiss style has many similarities to De Stijl, Bauhaus and even some similarities to the Soviet propaganda poster used in the 20th century. It was important to spread the information everywhere you could and opinions, and by developing a style that had the most focus on getting messages though typography on posters was another reason why the style changed.
Another influence for the style is the technology. In addition to new printing techniques, some cameras became available for more people to have, and the progress to develop pictures became much easier. In this way one could get more real expression on the posters and show more of the reality than a drawing could.
One of the main influencers on Swiss style was Joseph Müller-Brockmann. Müller-Brockmann was a graphic designer from Zurich. He wrote some very important books, like Grid Systems in Graphic Design and Pioneer of swiss graphic design, that influenced the style even further and the later development of graphic design. You can recognize his work by seeing simple design, pure typographic by using the font Helvetica, and geometric shapes.
Another important designer at that time is Emil Ruder. Ruder studied at the Zurich school of arts and crafts which was very influenced by the principles of Bauhaus and was taught new typography. He wrote some books, like Typographie: A manual of design, that helped to spread this style in the 1960s.
Analysis of the Swiss International Style
Read up on the different schools within the Swiss International Style: The Zurich School of Arts and Crafts and The Basel School of Design and do a write-up of the similarities between them and the differences in their approaches.
The development of Swiss style is very much bases on these two schools. One in Basel and one in Zurich. Emil Ruder taught at the Basel School of Design. Through his teaching the focus was on ease of reading, form and finality. That included spacing between letters, x height of letters and the shape of the letters. Everything he and the students invented and created was later presented in his book Typographie: A manual of design, which impacted worldwide.
The difference between these two schools are that the Basel School of Design focused more on the fonts, letterspacing and blending of weight of the different fountains. At the School of Arts and Crafts in Zurich it was more focus on the composition of the words in the form of grid systems and surfaces. Making the text fit into the design so the reader got to experience the whole design and not just the text.
What we know today of typographic design really stems from this development through the Swiss style in the 40-50s and 60s. We still use many of the same principles today in relation to grid, systems, fonts, font families, sizes and layouts. There are constantly different trends that follows the fashion image, were rules are broken and do not vary as well, but in the end, you will always find parts of the style that can be traced back to this period.
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